


Heat Shield

by ami_ven



Series: Colonel Fantastic and the Invisible Man [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcsheplets, M/M, Not a Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2014-03-28
Packaged: 2018-01-17 07:32:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1379233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An off-world mission goes very wrong for the super-powered team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heat Shield

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "mcsheplets" prompt #166 "past prompts" (#151 "invisible")

John might have been able to stretch himself like a rubber band— like silly putty, sometimes, if he concentrated hard or was just a little tipsy— but that apparently didn’t mean he couldn’t be shot. And bleed, a lot, coating Rodney’s hands as he scrambled to apply pressure to the wound.

Of course they had to find the planet where the natives were both easily insulted and armed with projectile weapons, although he couldn’t have predicted that Teyla, of all people, would have been the one to set them off. She had still been apologizing, right until the moment John had been shot— and after that, all bets were off.

“Sheppard?” said Rodney, trying to keep the pressure steady. “Don’t you dare die on me.”

John coughed and opened his eyes. “Wasn’t plannin’ on it,” he slurred, then blinked. “What happened?”

“You got shot, you idiot,” Rodney told him. “And the angry natives would really like to finish the job.”

“We should—”

There was a burst of gunfire nearby, and Teyla ducked back behind the half-crumbled, waist-high wall they were using for cover. “The path to the stargate is completely blocked.”

“What!?” said Rodney. “We have to get Sheppard back to Atlantis! He’s been _shot_ , Teyla, he could bleed out at any second!”

“ _He_ is right here,” John tried to snap, but his voice was hoarse.

“Be still, John,” said Teyla. “You are badly hurt.” She half-rose, one hand raised, and generated a ball of fire to launch at their attackers.

Ronon nearly toppled their unstable makeshift cover as he knelt beside them, rocky knees grating on the rocky ground. “How’s Sheppard?”

“Bad,” said Rodney. John was looking paler by the second, and his grip on the sleeve of Rodney’s jacket had loosened alarmingly. “We’ve got to get him back, _soon_.”

“I could carry him, make a run for it,” Ronon suggested.

Teyla shook her head. “You could probably survive that many bullets, but John can’t. And it would be unwise to split up now.”

“Yeah, okay,” Ronon rumbled, then said, “Teyla could fry ‘em.”

“What?” Rodney said, again. “No, no, no, that is a _bad_ idea, remember? There’s no way to localize that much heat energy, and something hot enough to take out all the guys around the ‘gate… you’ve never done anything like that.”

“We do not have many options, Rodney,” said Teyla. “Or very much time.”

“Okay,” said Rodney, reluctantly.

John was still, weakly, holding onto Rodney’s sleeve— he was conscious, but barely. And when Rodney slid an arm under John’s shoulders, trying to move him, the colonel gasped and tried to roll away from him.

“I don’t believe we should move him more than once,” said Teyla, kneeling on John’s other side. “He must stay here, and you must shield yourselves, Rodney.”

“Shield?” he repeated.

Invisible, he could do. Invisible was easy. Shields required not just concentration, but a single-mindedness that Rodney had never quite been able to achieve. He had been able to create a shield large enough to cover his whole body, but only under lab conditions, with Carson standing by. And it had always collapsed the moment he was under even simulated attack. He didn’t think he could sustain it for more than a few seconds in conditions like this.

“Teyla,” he began, “I—”

She was already beginning to heat up, the ends of her hair curling around her shoulders. “You _must_ , Rodney. We must get John back to Atlantis, quickly.”

“I know we do, but I _can’t_.” Those words hurt coming out, but he kept going, John’s breathing irregular beneath his hands, “I can’t shield myself, you know that, let alone anyone else. Not like this.”

“Don’t shield yourself, then,” Ronon rumbled. “Shield Sheppard.”

“I—” Rodney began again, but John let out a low moan and tried to roll away from the pressure Rodney was still keeping on his gunshot wound. Teyla kept him from rolling too far with a firm hand to his uninjured shoulder, and Rodney looked up at her. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

Teyla rose gracefully, took a step backwards, and burst into flames. Of all of them, she had the most control over her abilities, but she had never attempted anything on this scale.

Rodney could feel the heat rolling from her in waves, and leaned over John protectively. John’s pulse, slow but steady, beat against the bridge of his nose as Rodney closed his eyes against the colonel’s shoulder. He took a deep breath and created a shield, spreading the energy outward from between his shoulder blades. He concentrated on expanding it to cover them both, then visualized it thickening, sparking iridescent like an Ancient crystal.

The heat surrounding them increased, and Rodney added more power to his shield. Super-heated air followed Teyla as she stepped out from behind their cover, and Rodney added more power to his shield. There were screams, the sound of running, the acrid smell of burning—

Rodney ignored it all, focusing on John’s heartbeat. He ignored the sweat sliding into his eyes, ignored the roaring wind and the faint screaming. He felt his shield weaken against the heat, and grit his teeth, concentrating on keeping it up. 

His head began pounding, but Rodney hardly noticed. The heat was almost unbearable, searing against his back, but his shield didn’t waver.

Then, suddenly, there was a ringing silence. John let out a shuddering breath against Rodney’s hair, and the world went dark.

“Rodney,” said Teyla’s voice, in his ear. “Rodney, wake up. Get up.”

He felt her slide under his arm and haul him upright, the world spinning. “John?”

“Ronon has him,” Teyla said. “We must hurry.”

“Okay,” Rodney agreed. It was all he could do to stay on his feet as she steered him toward the ‘gate, right behind Ronon, carefully carrying John. He ignored the charred landscape, a fifty-foot circle that had not been there before, but couldn’t identify the odd coppery smell until he swiped a hand at his face and it came away bloody. “Huh.”

They hobbled through the ‘gate, and Carson met them on the other side. Rodney watched them pull John onto a gurney before he passed out again.

He came to in the darkened infirmary, and was halfway out of bed before he even knew he was going to be. “Sheppard?”

“Hey,” said a voice from the next bed over. John smiled at him, a little goofily, thanks to the painkillers. “Heard you saved my butt.”

Normally, Rodney would gloat about that, but today, he just took John’s hand, and held on tight. “Yeah.” 

THE END


End file.
